1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic display board apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electronic display board apparatus has been commercially available with a large size display such as a liquid crystal display, a plasma display or the like, a coordinate detection unit such as a touch panel or the like that detects a position (a coordinate) at which a pen or a finger touches, and an interface unit for an external terminal device such as a personal computer or the like.
Such an electronic display board apparatus includes functions as follows:                a function of displaying a screen image of a terminal device which is connected to the electronic display board apparatus or content which is stored in a server on a network in an enlarged manner,        a function of operating the terminal device by a movement of a pen or a finger using a touch panel function,        a function of inputting and displaying handwriting by the movement of the pen or the finger using the touch panel function, like a whiteboard, and the like.        
Such an electronic display board apparatus is often used for presentations or the like as it is possible to enlarge a screen image of a terminal device connected to the electronic display board apparatus so that plural people can see the screen image at a conference room or the like.
Further, in contrast with a case when a projector which projects a screen image on a wall is used, as the display of the electronic display board apparatus itself is bright, it is unnecessary to make the room dark. Thus, participants can easily see paper documents or the like at hand, take memos or the like while viewing the screen image of the electronic display board apparatus.
Further, as the electronic display board apparatus includes the touch panel function, it is possible to operate the terminal device which outputs the displayed screen image by directly touching the display (a touch panel) of the electronic display board apparatus instead of operating a mouse or a keyboard of the terminal device. Thus, a presenter is able to perform a presentation and operation of the terminal device near the electronic display board apparatus even when the presenter is far from the terminal device.
However, as described above, as it is possible to directly operate the terminal device via the electronic display board apparatus, an erroneous operation may occur by touching the touch panel while performing the presentation, for example. For example, there may be various erroneous operations such as a case where the screen image is moved to an unexpected position, a case where the screen image is deleted, or the like, by touching the touch panel by a hand or clothes, or the like.
In order to prevent such erroneous operations, a method of prohibiting the touch panel function may be adopted.
However, if the touch panel function is prohibited, although the above described erroneous operations can be prevented, as might be expected, the function of operating the terminal device and the function of inputting and displaying the handwriting by the movement of the pen or the finger cannot be achieved. Thus, in order to use the touch panel function, it is necessary to release the prohibition of the touch panel function every time. This is onerous for a user. Further, if the prohibition of the touch panel function is still existing, another user who wants to use the touch panel function may assume that the function has broken down.
Further, as the size of the display of the electronic display board apparatus is becoming larger and larger and the size of the screen image also becomes large, it is hard for a user to touch a part (an operational icon or the like) of the screen image which is displayed on the display of the electronic display board apparatus at the other side from the operator, for example.
Patent Document 1 discloses a method of setting a limited area (coordinate) only for which the touch panel function is enabled in order to prevent erroneous operations when performing a presentation by an electronic display board apparatus. The limited area is set based on the application and data of the limited area is registered in a terminal device. Then, when the respective application is displayed on the electronic display board apparatus, the data of the limited area is sent to the electronic display board apparatus so that the touch panel function is limited.
However, in such a method, it is necessary to previously set and register the limited area in the terminal device for each of the applications. Further, when the resolution or displayed area of the electronic display board apparatus is changed, the previously registered limited area may not be enabled.
Patent Document 2 discloses a method of applying a limitation to an area of a touch panel of an electronic display board apparatus.
However, it is necessary to perform a setting for each of applications to be used, and the problem of difficulty in operating the large size display still remains.